It’s surreal that the Stephen Colbert-produced show Tooning Out the News and its fake news anchor, James Smartwood, actually got Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker on the phone. But they did, and it’s exactly as ridiculous as you’d expect.
The Daily Beast reports that Walker picked up and, just like the show was able to dupe Rudy Giuliani, the former Heisman Trophy-winning football player answered questions about an alleged car break-in.
Walker made himself the butt of jokes after pulling out what looked like a Dollar Store sheriff’s badge during a debate with Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock in Savannah, Georgia, last week. It is the only debate Walker has agreed to—the one where he was able to get the questions ahead of time. “I am—work with many police officers,” Walker said onstage.
RELATED STORY: They finally debated: Warnock talked policy. Walker pulled out a prop sheriff’s badge
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During the broadcast, James Smartwood, the fake cartoon anchor of the show (voiced by creator R.J. Fried), announced that his car had been broken into the night before and his laptop was stolen, so he needed to call “the police.”
Smartwood makes the call, and a man who sounds identical to Walker answers. Smartwood says, “Mr. Walker, hey, this is James Smartwood from Big News. Do you have a second to chat?”
Walker asks what outlet he’s from, and Smartwood says simply, “Big News,” which seems to settle the candidate.
“Basically, what I wanted to do is I wanted to report a crime,” he explains to Walker. “I left my window down in my car last night, someone stole my laptop out of the passenger seat, and so I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any way in your—as someone who’s a law enforcement person—if there’s any way you can take a look at it.”
Walker, apparently happy to be on call at all hours for fictional petty crime investigations, responds with, “Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do is we’ll report your thing, and all that and stuff. That’ll be great. What we’ll do is, you got a number I can call?” Walker seems to write down Smartwood’s phone number as the cartoon anchor peppers him with questions about getting “fingerprints” and “checking security cameras.”
“The main thing, though, is that I wanna get to this laptop. Is there any chance you can hop in the squad car, you know, flick on the sirens, come down here or, maybe, like, go undercover or something?” Smartwood asks Walker. Walker responds, as usual, to a question with a question: “Uh, what can you do, can you do anything?”
Smartwood says, “No, I mean, I’m not, I’m not actually—I don’t have the authority.” Walker claims he’ll call him back. Smartwood says, “I gave him the wrong number, I don’t want him having my number.”
According to The Daily Beast, both Paramount and Fried confirmed the man on the phone was, in fact, Walker. “It’s really Herschel Walker,” Fried wrote to the outlet. “I’ll ask James Smartwood, but I’m pretty sure Smartwood just dialed 9-1-1, and that’s who picked up.”
Walker has continued to stand by his fake badge, telling NBC News two days after the debate, “That is a legit badge. I carry it with me all the time. It’s a real badge. It’s not a fake badge.”
Walker added that he has “badges all over, all over Georgia” and pulled out what he called an “honorary” sheriff’s badge. “If anything happen in this county, I have the right to work with the police to getting things done,” Walker added. “People don’t know that I’ve been working with law enforcement for years.”
Walker has even begun campaigning with sheriffs from around Georgia and, according to NPR, recently ordered 1,000 imitation badges to start handing out at campaign stops.
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